Surviving as the Terminally Ill Young Lady of the North Sea Ice Palace - Chapter 74

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 74
Despite the rule that once you entered the Inner Courtyard you couldn’t leave until the culprit and the Jade Seal were found.
The Elder came with us into the Inner Courtyard as a guarantee of our trustworthiness.
The Inner Courtyard was far more austere than the ornate Outer Courtyard, a Taoist temple suffused with a profound stillness.
Of course, this applied only to the main halls.
“Elder, who are these young people? How do they come to be here……?”
“They’re students from Cheonmu Academy, I’m told. They’ve even received special training in detecting traces of thieves.”
“Is that so?”
“If they’ve studied under Seon Gak Daesa, they’re trustworthy enough. I’ve only seen him once, but he struck me as a truly extraordinary man.”
The atmosphere among the Daoists who’d lost such a precious Jade Seal—bestowed by the Emperor himself—was considerably unsettled.
And it seemed about half of them weren’t particularly pleased that we, mere youths, had stepped forward to find the thief.
“But these are children not yet come of age, are they not?”
“And it’s not as if Seon Gak Daesa himself has come…….”
“There’s been no progress thus far anyway. The martial arts world may have methods we don’t—let’s trust them once.”
“Yes, indeed. We’re in a position where we’d beg a cat for its paws if needed.”
“There’s no such thing as an outsider here, I’m telling you!”
In truth, it was more surprising that the other half placed such expectations on us.
Cheonmu Academy seemed to have a far greater reputation than we’d realized.
“Originally, the Jade Seal was kept beneath this divine statue. Since Ho Jeong discovered the seal was missing, we’ve touched nothing else.”
In any case, with the Elder vouching for us, we were soon escorted to Samcheong Hall, where the Jade Seal had originally rested.
Some twenty Daoists who had been confined for ten days on account of being in the Inner Courtyard when the seal disappeared all followed along to observe what we would do.
“So this is Samcheong Hall.”
“Yes. This is the main hall of Taeching Temple.”
Samcheong Hall was a temple dedicated to the Three Pure Ones, the supreme deities of Taoism—Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun, and Daode Tianzun, the last being Laozi himself.
The most dignified and sacred space within all of Taeching Temple.
Upon entering, three great divine statues of the Heavenly Worthies stood side by side in an open expanse.
Before the statues were arranged an offering table and incense burners.
“The Jade Seal rested here, beneath the gaze of Yuanshi Tianzun.”
The Elder pointed to the space before the central statue.
A box woven of sandalwood served as the base; atop it lay silk embroidered with imperial dragons, and upon that the Jade Seal was held aloft in reverent display.
The box and silk remained undisturbed, yet the Jade Seal had vanished without a trace.
“……Do the masters usually pass through here frequently?”
“Yes. They come to burn incense several times an hour.”
“I see…….”
Gu Won and I began by examining the interior of Samcheong Hall.
Apart from the gathered crowd, I sensed nothing unusual.
Nothing appeared to be in disarray.
“When exactly did the Jade Seal disappear ten days ago?”
“Around the You Hour. Ho Jeong discovered it here and immediately informed Seon Yeon Jin In, after which the sealing was at once put in place.”
“And Ho Jeong, who made the discovery last…….”
“That would be me.”
Gu Won stepped forward and began questioning the Daoists.
Some of them seemed displeased, but with the Elder standing behind them, they eventually answered willingly enough.
“Except for a brief trip to the privy sometime after the Shen Hour, I never left my post!”
“And none of you witnessed any outsiders in the Inner Courtyard?”
“No.”
“There couldn’t be!”
It was essentially the same account we’d heard from the Elder earlier.
Though they spoke of sealing off the area, those in the Outer Courtyard had managed to gather some sense of the situation through the doors.
All twenty-odd Daoists shook their heads—not one had seen so much as a glimpse of any outsider.
When we’d walked slowly from the entrance of the Inner Courtyard to Samcheong Hall, it was about a quarter li.
A martial artist running at full speed could probably cover it in under five minutes.
There weren’t many places to hide along the way, but if luck favored them, it seemed not impossible to move without catching anyone’s eye.
“So the most suspicious thing in this situation is…….”
Gu Won’s gaze turned toward Ho Jeong, who had last seen the Jade Seal.
In fact, if we assumed all the testimony given by the Daoists so far was truthful.
An outsider would have had to slip inside during the quarter hour when Soomun Daoist was away, then wait somewhere in the Inner Courtyard.
Then, in the brief interval when there was no Daoist burning incense—a span of less than a quarter hour—they would have stolen the Jade Seal.
And all this time, ten days later, they would still be hiding somewhere within the Inner Courtyard.
“I searched Ho Jeong’s person very thoroughly and examined all his belongings. At least he’s not carrying the seal on him.”
To be honest, the situation had an air of forced convenience to it.
It seemed that not all Daoists trusted one another.
“This is truly outrageous! How could I have stolen the Jade Seal? I have lived my entire life at Taeching Temple by your grace, Elder—what possible reason could I have……!”
“Any number of reasons. Perhaps you were hired by the Black Path, who offer substantial sums.”
“Why do you all suspect Ho Jeong?”
“But Elder, doesn’t it defy logic that no outsider has appeared until now? How would they eat? Where would they relieve themselves?”
Of course, the Daoist named Ho Jeong denied the accusations vehemently.
And the Elder who had admitted us inside took his side.
Ho Jeong was his most accomplished disciple, he insisted—a man of such integrity that he could never succumb to corrupt temptation.
The Elder suspected none of the other Daoists whatsoever.
He seemed genuinely shocked to learn that several of them had been harboring suspicions of Ho Jeong as a thief all this time.
“Isn’t that why you and I have already searched through Ho Jeong’s quarters thoroughly?”
“He may have hidden it somewhere the moment the sealing took effect—how can we know?”
“We found nothing.”
“Not yet. If we were to use torture…….”
“What madness is this, in a sacred temple!”
“Tell me, student of Cheonmu Academy. What do you sense? Can you detect the presence of an outsider?”
“How could there be? The thief is certainly among us!”
Though only one voice rose above the others, the Daoists nevertheless each voiced their own opinions.
A few of them, led by a Daoist who seemed as though he might have become a detective had he been born in a later age, appeared to have already conducted some preliminary investigation, naming both Ho Jeong and the Soomun Daoist as suspects.
“I think we ought to question each of them individually.”
“Do you truly believe the thief is among us?”
“Honestly, wasn’t it because all of you deemed it highly likely that you decided to seal the place in the first place?”
“Well… that is to say…….”
When Gu Won himself began speaking as though he intended to inquire into alibis, the Elder started in surprise.
Yet he found himself unable to counter.
Even the Elder wavered, and the consensus shifted to agree that it must indeed be the work of someone inside.
‘Hmm…….’
While they argued fiercely, I wandered through Samcheong Hall, drifting aimlessly from place to place.
I had boldly claimed I could identify the thief and managed to gain entry to the Inner Courtyard, but truthfully, mystery novels were hardly my area of interest.
Well, I had borrowed a few in the library of my past life.
Based on that brief, fleeting familiarity with detective fiction…….
Surely the culprit would be the Elder himself?
Though sometimes, to subvert that cliché, the thief turns out to be Ho Jeong or the Soomun Daoist.
For a true twist, it would have to be all the Daoists trapped in here together, or—by narrative trick—myself as the guilty party.
‘But the Elder as the culprit doesn’t make sense, does it?’
The Elder wasn’t in the Inner Courtyard at the moment the sealing occurred.
Surely he hadn’t used the Heo Gong Seop Mul like some kind of summoning spell to spirit away the Jade Seal.
I tried to summon images of locked-room murder techniques—fishing line threaded through a doorknob and pulled tight from outside—but it was no use.
It had been so long since I’d read a detective novel that I couldn’t recall the details clearly.
‘In martial fiction, whenever the protagonist infiltrates a hall, they always crawl across the ceiling or something like that…….’
I glanced up at the ceiling.
The building of Samcheong Hall was too tall, and the rafters supporting the roof were fully exposed in an open-beam style, leaving no conceivable hiding space.
I examined the area behind the statue as well.
And just as Gu Won had done in the Deep Yellow Heaven, I tapped along the walls and floor, but found the same result.
No people, no hidden mechanisms.
“Is that the Library Pavilion, perhaps?”
I emerged from the entrance of Samcheong Hall and asked the Elder, who was doing his best to defend Ho Jeong.
“It is, though your investigation must first find the thief…….”
“If an outsider were hiding somewhere, it would be there. Might I be permitted to search?”
The detective Daoist questioned whether someone of high martial skill such as myself wouldn’t be able to sense the presence of an outsider even at this distance.
But I was hardly a specially trained tracker skilled in detecting qi.
If a martial artist were concealing their presence, there was no way I could discern it from this distance.
“This Samcheong Hall, being a hall for attending to divine statues and making offerings—all its spaces are open with nowhere to hide. But that place is an upper-story pavilion, and with all its bookshelves, the Library Pavilion will have many potential hiding spots.”
“We have already searched all the halls thoroughly, however…….”
“There may be places you missed. Let us go look.”
The Elder led the way to the Library Pavilion.
Some twenty Daoists followed after him in a rush once more.
Once outside and examining the other halls in the Inner Courtyard,
I could see that besides the Library Pavilion, there were several buildings—attendants’ quarters, dormitories for the Daoists—whose ceilings were sealed.
If I couldn’t find whoever was hiding in the Library Pavilion.
I’d have Gu Won question the Daoists about their alibis.
And I could search the other locations myself.
“Hmm……”
I’d entered the Library Pavilion, but sensed nothing out of the ordinary.
Naturally, I saw nothing amiss, heard no sounds, smelled nothing strange.
Still, having drawn my blade, shouldn’t I at least cut through the air?
“No one here!”
The Daoists scattered across the first floor cried out in unison.
I climbed to the second level.
Since the Library Pavilion was a space for preserving scriptures, the ceiling had been sealed flat.
In buildings constructed this way, a gap naturally formed above the ceiling boards and below the rafters.
“Look, there’s no space between the bookshelves to hide in.”
That much seemed true enough.
But I hadn’t expected it to be found so easily.
I drew my sword and thrust it hard into the ceiling.
“What—what are you doing……!”
Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
To the side, I jabbed several more times, gauging where a person might fit in the gap.
“Ahhhhh!”
At some point, my blade sank into something soft.
Crack!
The ceiling shattered.
And a body tumbled down.
……Well, there really was someone.
Surviving the Time Limit as Young Lady of Buk Hae Bing Palace (Serialized)
Author │ Sachiang Noru
Publisher │ Kim Joo-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Homepage │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sachiang Noru 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder. The content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of this clause may result in criminal and civil liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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